The Chinese word **宙斯 (Zhòusī)** is a **phonetic loan translation** formed to represent the Greek god **Zeus**. It does not carry inherent meaning from its individual characters in this context; instead, the characters were selected purely for their sound to approximate the pronunciation of the foreign name. The character **宙 (zhòu)**, which can mean "universe" or "time" in other contexts, and **斯 (sī)**, a common phonetic particle, combine to create a close auditory match to "Zeus" in Mandarin. This is a standard method in Chinese for transliterating foreign proper nouns, especially mythological and historical figures, where meaning-based translation is either impossible or impractical.